Juan Williams all but told Sean Hannity that he was deliberately race baiting Thursday night (4/12/12) when Hannity yet again fixated on comments that the black fringe group, the New Black Panther Party, has made regarding the Trayvon Martin shooting. Williams said, “To me, the attention you’re giving this group is playing to a stereotype. This is like a minstrel show about ignorant, angry, threatening black people.”

Before Sarah Palin offered her insights into the Hillary Rosen "stay at home Mom" flap on Hannity last night, Sean Hannity probed her thoughts on foreign policy, including the failed missile launch by North Korea. Did Hannity really think Palin had any thoughts on foreign policy? Or was he just trying to buttress her political cred with the knowledge that the gist of anything she said would be an attack on President Obama?

The right wing and its mouthpiece, Fox "News," love a good culture war as it reinforces the us vs. them right wing/Fox narrative and provides a platform for the meme of conservative victimization which is, as Jon Stewart said, the "true genius" of Fox News. Meanwhile, they deny the existence of a war on women which is based in the real world of *epic attempts to roll back women's rights. Hilary Rosen's statement that Ann Romney is not qualified to speak about women's economic issues has now, not surprisingly, generated a new divisive meme - a "war on stay at home moms." This morning, Steve Doocy (not working mom Gretchen Carlson) interviewed three women about this new "mommy war." Given the direction of the discussion, one wonders if Doocy's guest bookers were asleep at the switch. Or maybe they were actually trying to be "fair & balanced." At any rate, Doocy got as good as he gave - perhaps even better!

Gawker received a threatening letter from Fox News attorneys over the mole, former O'Reilly Factor associate producer, Joe Muto. It's a demand that any and all material given to them by Muto be returned to Fox. "Be advised that Muto's admissions are admissions of likely criminal and civil wrongdoing on both his and Gawker's part, which will be the subject of further extensive investigation. Fox News will pursue its rights and remedies in the appropriate legal forums." Fortunately for the rest of us, it doesn't look like Gawker is exactly quaking in its boots. The headline of their post about it is: Here’s a Picture of Bill O’Reilly With a Topless Woman Along With the Fox News Legal Threat Meant to Quash It

Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, appeared on The O'Reilly Factor, along with her attorney, Benjamin Crump. I think Bill O'Reilly meant well and that his sympathy and concern for Fulton was genuine. But his main interest was not in Fulton but trying to persuade her to speak out against Rev. Al Sharpton and a condescending concern that she wouldn't accept a not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.

Greta Van Susteren got into a heated debate about Hilary Rosen's comments about Ann Romney with Karl Rove. It's a shame that Van Susteren - instead of Democrats - stated the obvious: that Rosen was not knocking stay at home Moms but calling into question Romney's understanding of working women.

Newt Gingrich had some choice words yesterday about the "fair and balanced" network he used to work for: “In our experience, Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than FOX this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact.”

How many times is Fox News going to play New Black Panther Party tape as part of its Trayvon Martin coverage and, at the same time, whine about other people inflaming racial tensions? I made a video mashup of just two episodes of Hannity and one of The O’Reilly Factor and came up with quite a few. It’s Fox News 101: Find a villain, portray themselves as victims in some way, and then use that victimhood to fan the flames of hostility further. The phonywar on Ann Romney is another perfect example. But Fox’s NBPP game is especially toxic because the “fair and balanced” network is deliberately ginning up racial animosity in the middle of an already racially tense situation. Classy.

Given that Fox News has rallied its internet and radio content around Ann Romney, it wasn't surprising to see Ms. Romney being given the opportunity to address the multitudes via Fox's morning "news" show "America's Newsroom." This morning, in addition to providing a sweet and supportive platform for Ann Romney, Martha MacCallum was able to advance the Romney/GOP/Fox meme that Hillary Rosen, whose comment about Ann Romney has become a weapon in the Romney/GOP/Fox arsenal to be used against the Democrats, is connected to the DNC. She was also able to use the interview as a campaign ad for Mitt Romney. So, it was all good....